How Nintendo DRM trapped $400 of downloaded games on my failing Wii (updated)

And why the console maker wants $60 to help me free my purchases.

(This story has been updated with further information at the bottom of this post)

Downloading Nintendo’s massive, day-one Wii U firmware update took over an hour, but the length of time didn't bother me. I would finally be able to transfer the Virtual Console games I bought for the Wii over to my new Wii U. Then I could finally remove the old console itself from my entertainment center.

An error occurred

Moving content from an old Wii to a new Wii U could have been as simple as transferring Wii-based content to an SD card, then inserting that card into the Wii U. Instead, Nintendo set up a convoluted DRM system, hoping to ensure Wii owners could only play downloaded games (or access other personal content) on a single console.

The actual transfer process is handled by a free “Wii Transfer Tool,” which you download from the Wii Shop Channel to both the old and new systems. As the on-screen instructions explain in great detail, the process has three main steps:

Insert an SD card with at least 512MB free into the Wii U. The Wii U then registers the system and SD card with an Internet server. Next, it prepares a partition on the SD card for the transfer.

Put that same SD card into the Wii. The system connects to the Internet (presumably to confirm this content hasn’t been copied to another system yet), then copies the entire contents of the Wii system memory to the SD card. It will simultaneously delete that content from the source Wii.

Put the SD card back into the Wii U. After a final Internet check, all the data and personal information on the Wii is copied to the Wii U.

Getting this entire process set up was time-consuming and inconvenient. It required a lot of remote juggling and TV input switching. But after half an hour, I was finally watching a bunch of cute Pikmin slowly copy the accumulated contents of my Wii to the SD card. Then, with Step 2 of the above process roughly 33 percent done, the screen suddenly went black. My Wii displayed the message shown at the top of this post:

“An error occurred while accessing Wii system memory. Refer to the Wii Operations Manual for details.”

At this point, I had one thought—I was totally screwed. The Wii Transfer Tool warned me a dozen times not to turn off the system or remove the SD card during the transfer process. My data might have been corrupted. Or perhaps Nintendo’s servers already registered my transfer attempt and would prevent me from even trying again.

The system wasn’t responding to any Wii Remote input or even to a normal press of the power button. I finally bit the bullet: it was time to hold the power button down to perform a hard reset. Initially, things looked good, and I was surprised to find my data was unaffected. The transfer process started up again without a hitch. But the calm didn't last long; my second transfer stopped at exactly the same point as the first. A third attempt yielded the same results.

I finally listened to the screen and looked at the manual. The Wii Operations Manual pointed me to the Nintendo Support Website. The Nintendo Support Website directed me to an 800 number. The representative there delivered the news coolly: my system needed to be repaired before I could continue the transfer process. My Wii is well past its 12-month warranty, so this process would cost $75 plus a $10 cherry on top for the shipping.

What's actually trapped

Without the repair, I could recover some data from my Wii. My most important save data is already backed up to an SD card, and the rest can also be copied over to my Wii U without issue. (However, the Wii U oddly insists that I play each game on the new system before I’m allowed to copy over said data.)

But the Wii hardware actively prevents me from copying the save data for some games, most notably Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Mario Kart Wii. Why? My guess is that this is to solve possible technical or fairness issues associated with using the same online account on multiple systems. I still don’t really understand why that means the characters and levels I’ve unlocked have to be trapped on my Wii forever. I’m assuming the Wii Transfer Tool could move this save data for me, but the memory issue makes it impossible without paying for a repair.

All of that is only a minor inconvenience. The larger issue remains: the fate of dozens of Virtual Console games I’ve purchased for my Wii over the years hangs in the balance. The collection is worth about $400 by my estimates. Most of these games are backed up on that same SD card (since they wouldn’t all fit on the Wii system memory), but Nintendo’s copy protection ties their license data exclusively to the Wii system on which they were originally downloaded. The Wii Transfer Tool would move this license data for me, if it worked. As it stands, the games stay jailed on antiquated hardware.

If I want to re-download my purchases to the Wii U, there’s no way for me to confirm to the new system that I am, in fact, the person who purchased all these games. My Wii Shop account data is also tied to the Wii on which it was set up. (Naturally, shifting it to the Wii U requires the Wii Transfer Tool.) The 300 Wii Shop Points (worth only $3) I had left over are a small casualty of this situation, but I'm suddenly glad I didn’t keep a larger virtual currency balance. Any Miis I created or stored on the Wii are also trapped if the Wii Transfer Tool won't ultimately work, but I can't say I'm too broken up about that.

I asked the Nintendo support representative whether there was any way to just transfer my license and account data from the Wii to the Wii U. This could prove to the system that I am me, without having to use the non-responsive Transfer Tool. The short answer? No.

I was told that the only way to get my account moved was to pay for the system repairs, then try the transfer again. The representative seemed unsure if my save data (including the uncopyable Smash Bros. and Mario Kart data) would be safe throughout the repair process. He assured me that my license and account data would be fine and transferable, though, even if Nintendo had to replace the entire system piece by piece.

I had to stand up a bit here. I complained that the quoted $85 seemed like a high price for the ability to transfer games I already legally purchased (and to repair a system I was literally planning on never using again). My efforts earned me a “loyal customer” discount of $25. The rep then e-mailed me a printable shipping slip and said I had 14 months to use it. I would be charged $60 (plus Pennsylvania sales tax) only when the system was repaired and ready to be sent back—one to two weeks after Nintendo receives it.

The choice

That’s where things stand. Thanks to aging hardware and a strict DRM system, I have a choice to make. Spend $60 to move $400 of legitimate Virtual Console purchases and other data from my aging Wii to my brand new Wii U—or don't. If I pass, at least I can continue playing those games on the Wii until the memory issue affecting the transfer process eventually prevents the Wii from working at all. At that point, I presume I would need the same repair option to save my purchases.

At the moment, I’m undecided. I enjoy having a virtual library of classic games at my fingertips on the Wii, but truthfully, I rarely play those titles. (I don't need a quick hit of nostalgia on the big screen every day.) And I loathe essentially rewarding Nintendo by paying the company for making this process so difficult. Then again, I’ve already sunk hundreds of dollars into buying these games, and I would prefer to keep that value going forward.

Most Wii owners will probably be able to use the transfer tool without a hitch, seamlessly enjoying their older content on the newer system. Sadly, a "loyal customer" like me wasn't so lucky.

UPDATE:Afewcommenters suggested that I might be able to avoid having to send my Wii in for repair by formatting my Wii's system memory and trying the transfer process again. This would guarantee I would lose the uncopyable save data on the system, but I would save the cost and hassle of a Nintendo repair.

After triple-checking my backup, I tried reformatting this morning. After waiting an hour and a half (for a process that Internet reports say usually takes a couple of minutes), I decided that the formatting had failed somewhere (even though the system showed it was still processing). I performed a hard reset, expecting my console to be a useless brick, but instead found that the formatting seems to have deleted some, but not all, of my saved data. I redownloaded the Wii Transfer Tool and started the process again, only to find that I got the same memory error, only now it appeared almost immediately, rather than a third of the way into the process.

Just for kicks, I went into my Wii save data management and tried deleting the file that the process seemed to be hanging on, an old save for Pro Evolution Soccer 2009. The system has been trying to delete that small file for the last ten minutes now without success. At this point, I'm guessing there's a physical problem with a specific memory location inside that file that is causing the transfer to malfunction.

Again, most Wii owners probably won't run in to this specific problem, and I don't necessarily expect Nintendo to be responsible for a physical problem in a system that's five years out of warranty. But the only reason this small hardware problem is an issue at all is that Nintendo's DRM is forcing the Transfer Tool to freeze on that bad sector, rather than simply letting me copy files from a clean backup or re-download purchases through a password-protected account.

Since this story was published, Nintendo PR has reached out to offer me a free repair on my console (an offer which Ars Technica's code of ethics prevents me from accepting). I'm currently awaiting a response from Nintendo on the prevalence of this kind of issue and whether the company would consider extending the Wii U's warranty to cover transfer-related issues on older Wii consoles.

Until then, I'm leaning toward paying to send the system in for repairs, just to see how the entire process goes and to confirm whether or not it will actually fix my problem. I'll be sure to update you if and when I have more information on that score.

Promoted Comments

The reason that the game data for Super Smash Brothers Brawl and Mario Kart Wii isn't transferred is because those games can be played via the internet. Any game that can use the internet won't allow game data to be backed up to an SD card or use the SD card to store the data. I hit this same issue when my launch series Wii's optical drive died and I got a new Wii to replace it. A guy that I work with had the same drive failure occur on his launch series Wii and he took it to a local repair shop to get the drive replaced because of the library of Virtual Console games his kids have on the unit.

In fact, things are even more irritating in these cases because unless you send the unit into Nintendo themselves for repair, you are unable to transfer any Virtual Console purchases between Wii consoles at all. The fact that Nintendo even provides a tool like this for the Wii U is at least a tiny step in the right direction for them.

I have to agree with the other people though, that with other platforms like XBox, PS3, iOS, Android and Steam allowing this to work with a single account and not binding the account to a device (with the exception of iOS, which allows a maximum of 5 devices to be tied to a single iTunes account (or did, not sure if that is still the case)), it is time that Nintendo catch up with the times. It can't be because all the third party developers are asking for it, since those same developers are fine with the way it works on the other platforms. This has to be something that is specifically for first party games from Nintendo.

218 Reader Comments

BTW most of the games from the XBox marketplace is only usable on the machine it is first installed on. It cannot be transferred off, and it is tied to one machine.

Microsoft is as #^#$'d up to.

XBox Live has the capability to transfer your licenses from one console to another every so often (once or twice a year, something like that) using an online interface. Redownload the content on the new console, then transfer over your saves (if any). Can be done if the old console is total slag (the HD needs to be functional if you want saves, but that's it).

I actually just did this when my 5 year-old 360 died a week ago, and it was quite painless. It's the kind of system that Nintendo SHOULD have.

I have a feeling that even this scheme has its weakness. For example, your console can't even reboot, due to a fried component or general hardware failing due to defect. What then?

That is actually what happened to mine. The license transfer is handled via a web interface and can be done completely independently of the original console. You could have had a semi back over the old console a couple of times and you could still perform the transfer as long as you know your XBox Live credentials. The only console that needs to work in this system is the new one.

a high price for the ability to transfer games I already legally purchased

You mean you legally licensed to run on that one device...

Just because they say you only pay for a license, it doesn`t mean that it actually is so. I don`t know about US, but in many European countries the EULA that many companies use (MS, Apple, Nintendo, Sony) are invalid. The buyer has rights according to the law, and no contract between the parties can supercede those.But this wouldn`t be a problem in many European countries either, because there are laws which dictate the minimum time a manufacturer has to guarantee that their product function properly. Where I live Nintendo would have to provide a guarantee for five years.

The US is a great country, but you have been raped to death by the corporations ...

If all that ever happens with digital distribution of games, is either licencing or subscribing to software, how can you have a "game sale"?

I think the problem here is, the EULA is too long, and people are just completely unaware what they are agreeing to, and the game companies are being intentionally deceptive to hide what they want to do, as much as possible.

I think it's quite reprehensible that game companies pull this off, but ultimately, if it says so in the EULA, that the games are bound to a device, then this article is really moot, people should try to read the EULA to try to find out what they are agreeing to, and if they don't like it, then don't agree, and vote with your wallet.

I understand this is going to be, for the most part, a fruitless post, but i really don't like DRM, and the only message you can give back is the lack of your dollars, but also, I'm criticising people for not trying to become aware of what they're agreeing to.

No reason for any games on Steam to have DRM, there are plenty that don't, although there is an urban legend that all Steam games have DRM

Can I download on one machine and play on another (without signing in)? No? That's DRM.

Can they yank access to your games (try a chargeback, I dare you)? That's DRM.

Yes, of course you can, as I said games don't have to use DRM on Steam. Valve may can't "yank access" to DRM free games on the store once you have downloaded them. That is, sort of, the point of DRM free

EDIT: link to one list of DRM free games on Steam as some people, obviously, still believe the "Urban Legend" I mentioned above

You are splitting hairs. Yes, it is true you can buy a whole few dozen games without it, but that doesn't diminish the argument that for the vast majority of transactions, they are rentals and not purchases.

You should have complained more. You could probably have negotiated a cheaper repair with the frontline rep. If the negotiation failed, you could have asked for a supervisor and almost certainly have got a free repair. Nintendo always hires a lot of new reps this time of year so you might have got an inexperienced one.

Personally, I think you as a journalist should call/email them again and tell them that you've written this piece, and ask if they'll help you resolve your issue. Ask for details every step of the way. Try to figure out exactly what it was that caused this issue for you. Is it just you? Is it everyone's Wii? Do a survey, try to figure out what the failure rates are. Try to figure out what other problems your Wii must have (there must be something else other than locked DRM, right?) Do some investigation!

BTW most of the games from the XBox marketplace is only usable on the machine it is first installed on. It cannot be transferred off, and it is tied to one machine.

Microsoft is as #^#$'d up to.

XBox Live has the capability to transfer your licenses from one console to another every so often (once or twice a year, something like that) using an online interface. Redownload the content on the new console, then transfer over your saves (if any). Can be done if the old console is total slag (the HD needs to be functional if you want saves, but that's it).

I actually just did this when my 5 year-old 360 died a week ago, and it was quite painless. It's the kind of system that Nintendo SHOULD have.

I have a feeling that even this scheme has its weakness. For example, your console can't even reboot, due to a fried component or general hardware failing due to defect. What then?

You don't need the old console to transfer the license(Microsoft added the option to allow license management when an Xbox has died) - you power up the new one, sign into your live profile, go into the settings and transfer the license (more accurately I guess you activate the license) and then you can download any of the content you've purchased on Live. As the license is active on the new 360, the downloaded content will not require the original Live account it was bought with. If the Xbox 360 has failed but the hard drive has not, I believe you can just slot it into the new one but as the license won't match you will need to be signed in with the original account to use any content.

No reason for any games on Steam to have DRM, there are plenty that don't, although there is an urban legend that all Steam games have DRM

Can I download on one machine and play on another (without signing in)? No? That's DRM.

Can they yank access to your games (try a chargeback, I dare you)? That's DRM.

Yes, of course you can, as I said games don't have to use DRM on Steam. Valve may can't "yank access" to DRM free games on the store once you have downloaded them. That is, sort of, the point of DRM free

EDIT: link to one list of DRM free games on Steam as some people, obviously, still believe the "Urban Legend" I mentioned above

You are splitting hairs. Yes, it is true you can buy a whole few dozen games without it, but that doesn't diminish the argument that for the vast majority of transactions, they are rentals and not purchases.

If that was the argument made then I might agree to it. However it was not.

EDIT: Sorry, I don't want to appear argumentative! I was specifically referring to this statement made by TimTheTaxMan:"Steam is a long term rental service until proven otherwise."

DRM is a long term rental service until proven otherwise including the Valve DRM included with many games on Steam, i could possibly agree with. The blanket statement that steam is DRM until Proven otherwise is just wrong.

No reason for any games on Steam to have DRM, there are plenty that don't, although there is an urban legend that all Steam games have DRM

Can I download on one machine and play on another (without signing in)? No? That's DRM.

Can they yank access to your games (try a chargeback, I dare you)? That's DRM.

Yes, of course you can, as I said games don't have to use DRM on Steam. Valve may can't "yank access" to DRM free games on the store once you have downloaded them. That is, sort of, the point of DRM free

EDIT: link to one list of DRM free games on Steam as some people, obviously, still believe the "Urban Legend" I mentioned above

You are splitting hairs. Yes, it is true you can buy a whole few dozen games without it, but that doesn't diminish the argument that for the vast majority of transactions, they are rentals and not purchases.

Agreed - I count around 122 games on that non-DRM list (many of them much older games) and at least 3,563 games on Steam (looking at techanalyst's profile) so that makes non-DRM Steam games account for around 3.5% of the total which means the large majority of games (96.5%) use DRM and meet the conditions (or more accurately restrictions of DRM) as mentioned above.

No one should have to pay $85 to access their content just because the hardware broke. This is a bad precedent What happens with games tied to Steam or Origin when Valve/EA go out of business. Will they try to grab as much cash as possible by offering to free your games for a small 'convenience fee'?

Isn't that how DRM-free iTunes music began? As iTunes Plus? And you could pay money to upgrade your old files to remove DRM.

No, it would upgrade them to higher quality (128 to 256, IIRC). Dropping the DRM was a side effect.

I'm just going to throw this out there: As an attorney, I would say that this likely violates some forms of consumer protection laws as well as basic property rights and probably some contractual rights as well. If you want to save yourself the money (but spend a little time in return) write a complaint to your state's Attorney General's office and explain the situation. Basically, Nintendo mandated you use their tool to transfer your legally purchased data to your new device. Their tool, which you had no alternative to use, directly resulted in costing you either $60 in repair fees or $400 in lost property. This is highly suspect and I guarantee the Attorney General's office (at least the NY Attorney General) would look into this as this rings loudly of consumer abuse. Might be worth the 5 minutes it takes to fill out the complaint form.

This is the USA. Consumer protection laws have largely been thrown by the wayside, as they hurt the "job creators".

I'm just going to throw this out there: As an attorney, I would say that this likely violates some forms of consumer protection laws as well as basic property rights and probably some contractual rights as well. If you want to save yourself the money (but spend a little time in return) write a complaint to your state's Attorney General's office and explain the situation. Basically, Nintendo mandated you use their tool to transfer your legally purchased data to your new device. Their tool, which you had no alternative to use, directly resulted in costing you either $60 in repair fees or $400 in lost property. This is highly suspect and I guarantee the Attorney General's office (at least the NY Attorney General) would look into this as this rings loudly of consumer abuse. Might be worth the 5 minutes it takes to fill out the complaint form.

They typically have EULAs that indemnify themselves against just about everything where is is legal to do so and when there is a legitimate dispute, the EULA requires mandatory arbitration outside of the courts.

If there would be a way around the binding arbitration clause, it would be getting the Attorneys General of several states to take interest in the case.

PC gaming has had worse DRM than consoles for awhile now with online activations for almost every AAA title. If Steam ever goes under there are going to be a lot of unhappy people out there. Despite the urban legend, there is no official statement that Steam games will be playable if steam ends.

Steam is a long term rental service until proven otherwise.

No reason for any games on Steam to have DRM, there are plenty that don't, although there is an urban legend that all Steam games have DRM

The vast majority do though. Some games just have additional DRM on top of the normal steamworks CEG DRM.

Steam is not a rental service then is it? Games don't have to have DRM, even Steamworks. So blame the publishers/Devs (inc Valve) if Steam games have DRM. Steam itself does not mandate any DRM although it provides it if desired.

Steam is a rental service, you are a "subscriber", notice that they don't have a EULA, it's a SSA, or Steam Subscriber Agreement, and if they decide to change it at a later date, you still have to agree to it, or else you can't access steam at all, like when they made everyone agree to arbitration rather than class action lawsuits.

Technically (although some internet lawyer may correct this), if they revoke access to your subscription, and you have DRM free games that you can still play, you are pirating them, because you are no longer licensed to play them.

Gabe and Steam deserve every every bit of praise and accolade they've ever received. They set the bar for fair and reasonable protection that all other DRM scenes are measured against.

No they haven't, i've had plenty of trouble playing steam games, valve games, where it just wouldn't let me start a game, or downloading games was problematic, installing games would fail. I miss the old days of not having to run third party software, to run the software i want.

GoG has the right priorities. It's unfortunate that they don't get the new games as steam does.

I decided at the initial Wii U reveal that I would not be buying one because I predicted that Nintendo would choose to remain out of touch with the rest of the gaming industry when the future eventually became the present, just as they did with the Wii. Looks like I was right (again).

But it's even worse than I thought it would be. Day-one firmware updates exceeding 5GB in size, a firmware updating process that bricks your system before the download is even complete if you lose your internet connection (why doesn't it wait until the download is complete before flashing the update?), a purely ABYSMAL selection of quality games on launch day, a CONTROLLER of which only one can be used before system performance becomes an issue... Fuck, I could go on for almost forever.

What the hell has happened to this once-great company? Where is the Nintendo I grew up with? What's with all the massive fuck-ups, like the current Wii U issues and everything that is the 3DS (Circle Pad Pro? For fuck's sake).

I'm sorry for my use of curse words, but I need to accentuate how incredibly ass-backwards Nintendo is becoming. They can only ride on their name for so long before they start losing a significant number of customers (might not happen this generation, but maybe next if things continue on like this). Sure, they have a big name strongly entrenched in the industry, but they're slowly chipping away at it, bit by bit. WILLINGLY. Sure, they'll sell a boatload of Wii U's, but then what? Shovelware until the next generation with a handful of decent titles in between? Fuck that. FUCK THAT. Every user so casual to play those kinds of titles probably already have a Wii. And at this price point, most are probably not going to buy a Wii U, at least right away. The advantage of price point that the Wii previously had is now gone. You can get a PS3 or Xbox 360 for the same price or less, and get a much larger, better library of games, with motion controls *if you want*.

It's just... Incomprehensible. They don't know what they want to be anymore. There are no more words. I've got nothing.

As has already been said, I would take option #3: Return the Wii U and never buy another Nintendo product again.

Not exactly a feasible option for someone who reviews video games.

Why not?

"Sorry, your games aren't getting reviewed anymore until you both fix my issue, and show me a policy change taking care of future customers as well."

There's no reason Nintendo can't waive the repair fee in the specific case of issues transferring data to a new console. I'd be fine reading an Ars (or any other publication) without Nintendo reviews until such a policy is in place.

I think this simply goes to illustrate a point that Nintendo has made abundantly clear over the years - they don't care about this. They actively want you to keep purchasing the same content over and over again, to keep their revenue stream up!

Unfortunately they can't do much about letting purchases for the original Wii reside on multiple devices because purchases aren't made with an account registered to Nintendo; the only 'account' is the Wii console itself.

If the Wii U's eShop is doing purchases based on a Nintendo Network ID, then at least they have the option of doing this in the future (hopefully anything you transfer to the Wii U ends up being owned by the same account).

I really REALLY hate DRM and this article is exactly why. I understand that piracy is a problem and they want to do their best to prevent it, but as long as any company uses the business model of "preventing piracy is more important than giving the customer a product that actually works," then that's a company I have no interest in doing business with. This is why I dread the day when consoles finally make the switch to a full download-only model. You essentially don't own any of that $400 worth of content if you have to pay a ransom to continue to use it and I have a serious objection to buying something and then not owning it.

Honestly, if I were in your position, I'd take the Wii U back and swear off any future Nintendo purchases: if the product can't do what it's supposed to and the company won't fix it without charging you, then they don't deserve your money.

On the other hand, I'm not a big Nintendo fan (I don't have anything against them but I've just never been into their games) and my interest in gaming in general has waned over the past few years, so it's easy for me to say something like "swear off Nintendo." If you are a fan and you do really enjoy their games, then it becomes a lot more difficult to just do without. In that case, you've really got no choice: it's their ball on their court so you play by their rules. This is at least part of the reason my interest in gaming has waned: I'm just not willing to spend any serious amount of money on a product that I don't own and can't transfer (give it to a friend or sell it at a yardsale/pawn shop/ebay).

As has already been said, I would take option #3: Return the Wii U and never buy another Nintendo product again.

Not exactly a feasible option for someone who reviews video games.

Why not?

"Sorry, your games aren't getting reviewed anymore until you both fix my issue, and show me a policy change taking care of future customers as well."

There's no reason Nintendo can't waive the repair fee in the specific case of issues transferring data to a new console. I'd be fine reading an Ars (or any other publication) without Nintendo reviews until such a policy is in place.

You've confused games journalists with consumer advocates. They're not the same.

Just because they say you only pay for a license, it doesn`t mean that it actually is so. I don`t know about US, but in many European countries the EULA that many companies use (MS, Apple, Nintendo, Sony) are invalid. The buyer has rights according to the law, and no contract between the parties can supercede those.

Didn't European courts also recently decide that even digital items had a right of resale? Anyone who's business model relies on the license versus purchase argument might rethink doing business in the EU.That, or find a way to not be such legal wanks.

If all that ever happens with digital distribution of games, is either licencing or subscribing to software, how can you have a "game sale"?

I think the problem here is, the EULA is too long, and people are just completely unaware what they are agreeing to, and the game companies are being intentionally deceptive to hide what they want to do, as much as possible.

I think it's quite reprehensible that game companies pull this off, but ultimately, if it says so in the EULA, that the games are bound to a device, then this article is really moot, people should try to read the EULA to try to find out what they are agreeing to, and if they don't like it, then don't agree, and vote with your wallet.

I understand this is going to be, for the most part, a fruitless post, but i really don't like DRM, and the only message you can give back is the lack of your dollars, but also, I'm criticising people for not trying to become aware of what they're agreeing to.

Certainly it would be ideal for consumers to know exactly what they're agreeing to, but I just don't see that as being realistic. As you noted EULAs are too long, and they're written in legalease or semi-legalease (they're there to cover the companys' butts so they have to be legal) which the average layman would have a difficult time understanding even if they did read them. I think it's generally expected that the majority of people won't read them.

In my opinion, and this might be controversial to any software devs present, EULAs as they stand today ought to just be thrown out of the legal system entirely and should have no binding power over consumers. Instead of the current model, a few standardized EULAs ought to be created and all future software could use one of these. That way it becomes much easier to know what you're signing up for (if there were a half dozen standardized EULAs, there would almost certainly be at least one website with breakdowns of what each means to consumers in plain english). Companies could be allowed to add some addendums though there would need to be legal limits as to what they're allowed to add/subtract and they should be limited to one page worth of addendums so that consumers only have a small section of new content to read and agree to. If those companies want to be especially customer-minded (and EVERY company should be!!), they can add a plain english "translation" of the addendums on their websites.

Did they offer to refund your 300 Wii points? That's the bigger issue to me. If you buy something with no guarantee that it will work on another system then that's a risk you take, but if you had $100 in points or something that they tie to your broken system that's another issue.

Frankly haven't read through all of the posts here, so this may have been suggested. However, I encountered this same error (evidently caused by corruption of the cheap NAND Nintendo used) and was able to restore partial functionality by unplugging the power plug, plugging it back in and holding the power and reset buttons down during boot up. The system invariably crashed again if I did a lot with it, but you might be able to get it stable long enough to transfer the files. One last option is to enter debug mode, which I think is done by holding down the 1 and 2 buttons on the Wiimote as well.

I haven't used a Wii in years, but why not try uninstalling and/or deleting the game that is causing the transfer to fail. Perhaps it would skip over to the next game and you could retrieve all but one?? {Is this possible on a Wii?}

I have no idea which game in particular is causing the failure. I don't think it's a specific file, but perhaps a specific memory sector in the Wii's flash memory. That is what the Nintendo rep led me to believe was the likely culprit, at least.

So then if you just pull out all of your games (virtual or disc) and open all the save games and resave them again, it'll write the data to a different place in the flash memory. Then try the transfer and see what happens.

Never understood why you just not have a Nintendo account like everyone else now. Getting DSi eShop games you had to send your device to Nintendo to transfer them to a 3DS.

...or use the 3DS Transfer Tool from the DSi store like I did when I bought a 3DS XL a few days ago? I did have a problem when my Internet connection went out right as the transfer started, but restarting the process successfully transferred everything from my DSi to my 3DS XL.

MS does a pretty good job of tying content to your gamertag. I had a power surge kill my 360 as well as the HDD. When I got my new 360, all I had to do was download my gamertag to my new 360 and do a content license transfer. It was pretty painless. Nintendo needs to do likewise.

The situation isn't exactly roses with the xbox 360 either. When my 2007 console red ringed after 4 years, I wanted to buy the arcade version and slap the old hard drive on it. Couldn't find one in stock locally. Ended up paying for a new slim and was forced to purchase an additional 'hard drive transfer cable' to do the account / asset transfer to the new box (the slim doesn't support the old style hard drive). It worked for the most part although an error occurred which prevented a few pieces of content from being transferred over. A big hassle and quite expensive.

I sympathize but I also ask, "What did you expect?" I would never sink significant money into stuff like the Virtual Console or XBLA or the PS3 store without knowing full well I was renting the game. You rented $400 of old games and now the jig is up. Sucks.

As has already been said, I would take option #3: Return the Wii U and never buy another Nintendo product again.

Not exactly a feasible option for someone who reviews video games.

Why not?

"Sorry, your games aren't getting reviewed anymore until you both fix my issue, and show me a policy change taking care of future customers as well."

There's no reason Nintendo can't waive the repair fee in the specific case of issues transferring data to a new console. I'd be fine reading an Ars (or any other publication) without Nintendo reviews until such a policy is in place.

If you could get a meaningful number of other game review sites to pile on the bandwagon, it might actually make a difference...

Same exact thing happened to me, but I got it to work by backing up all my saves to my SD, then i reformatted the Wii, launched shop, downloaded, ran the transfer channel and it WORKED! Finally! Hopefully this works with everyone else!

Wow, that's crazy. Gotta agree with other commentators and say such purchases (like Steam et al) should be tied to the account and not the device. At most, it should recognise if the account is trying to be accessed from new devices and go through some checks (like Steam does), but that's it. Hell, Steam even backs up your saves to the cloud so transfer is even easier.

If you can re-download a game (or restore from an SD card backup) on an authorized Wii system, why not just back up the fast majority of your Virtual Console games, leaving only one (say, the first one it copies that works,) on the console.

Then run the transfer tool, which will transfer the one game (plus the 'system rights'.)

Save whatever game saves you would like to keep to your SD card (except the ones that won't let you...Smash Bros, Animal Crossing, ect...those are gone for good) and then reformat your wii system memory. Dont worry about your downloaded games, those are safe on Nintendos servers. Ignore the message about removing your account from the Wii Shop Channel. DO NOT remove this.

I encountered the same error as you, and this worked for me.

After the reformat, redownload and try the wii u transfer app again. Should work this time.

Once you've completed the transfer to your Wii U, go into the Wii shop channel and redownload any games you want. Your account will be linked and they will all be their waiting for you.

At this time you can also move your saves to the wii u from the sd card, but many disc games will require you to enter the disc first. Another peculiar behavior is that while each disc must be inserted prior to moving the data, some games will immediately create a new save slot upon the disc booting up (i found this with DK Returns and the Kirby Collection). If you try to go in and move your data from the card after entering these discs, you get a message that your wii already contains a save file for this game. So you must delete the blank save file from the wii memory that was just created, and THEN it will allow you to transfer your original save file from SD card to Wii.

Kyle Orland / Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in the Washington, DC area.